Court rules against the RIAA

A federal court ruling against RIAA’s accusations stated that “Merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder’s exclusive right of distribution.”  The RIAA, or as I like to call them, the Really Inconsiderate Assholes of America, have been using this same litigation strategy for sometime.  Going after normal everyday people and slamming them with copyright infringement damages of $750 per song has been their normal policy.  A copyright lawyer said that this recent federal court decision the end of this RIAA litigation strategy.  The Inquirer reports:

“A lawyer investigating appeals for people already ordered to pay damages of up to $150,000 a song says that, following the new ruling, he believes the convictions were reached following improper instructions to juries. He added that damages of $750 per song would be ruled unconstitutional, as the actual lost profit when a song is copied is more like 40 cents.”